Great Street Photographers


GREAT STREET PHOTOGRAPHERS

SELECTED “FIRST-GENERATION” STREET PHOTOGRAPHERS 

ANDRE  KERTESZ  (1894-1985)  Hungarian;

first great street photographer: “Whatever we have done, Kertész did first.”  –Henri Cartier-Bresson

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ROBERT DOISNEAU  (1912-1994)  French;

traveled little; Paris based; square format for earlier work; wit & humor

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON  (1908-2004)  French; world traveler; photojournalist; perhaps the best known photographer in the world, the most admired and imitated by other photographers; obsessed with geometry and timing

WILLY RONIS   (1910-2009)  French

EDOUARD BOUBAT   (1923-1999)   French

VIVIAN MAIER    (1926-2009)    American

HELEN LEVITT    (1930-2009)   American

FIRST-GENERATION STYLE ELEMENTS

  • “cool distance” from subjects  [“invisible” photographer]
  • “undeniable  empathy” with subjects
  • “classical sense of composition”
  • “implied narrative”
  • “anecdotal detail”

–Ferguson, Russell. “Open City: Possibilities of the Street”, in Open City: Street Photography Since 1950. Oxford: Museum of Modern Art Oxford, 2001, 9-21.

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SELECTED “SECOND-GENERATION” STREET PHOTOGRAPHERS

 WILLIAM KLEIN   (1928-   )    American

ROBERT FRANK   (1924-   )    Swiss

GARY WINOGRAND   (1928-1984)   American

LEE FRIEDLANDER   (1934-   )   American

SECOND-GENERATION STYLE ELEMENTS

  • closer to subject; wide-angle lens; “in-your-face” presence (especially William Klein)
  • imbalanced, chaotic composition
  • tilted framing (blind shooting–especially Gary Winogrand)
  • cluttered, multi-layered, sometimes obstructed views (especially Lee Friedlander)
  • darker themes; less empathy; more satire

Larry E. Fink, Hardin-Simmons University